Head of Media Programmes

Location: Flexible within Europe, Middle East and Northern Africa

Reports to: Executive Director

Salary: Commensurate with experience and location

About the Womanity Foundation

The Womanity Foundation (Womanity)’s vision is to live in a world, where women and men enjoy full social, economic and political rights. We believe that empowering women and girls is the key to achieving global prosperity and wellbeing. Our programmes transform lives, remove barriers to success and challenge the status quo. We partner with businesses, social entrepreneurs and civil society around the world to deliver and scale effective grass-roots ideas and achieve meaningful impact through innovation, collaboration and replication.

Background

Womanity believes that Media can play an influential role in transforming power relations, societal norms, and gender relations. With this view, since 2010, the foundation has developed programmes that use media productions and media formats to create avenues for broader discussions on the role of women in Arab societies. By doing so, it can promote their empowerment and their rights and showcase their positive contribution to their communities. These programmes include Radio Nisaa, an independent radio station in Palestine and Be100Ragl, an innovative fiction series, now in its third edition, distributed online via Facebook and Youtube.

Womanity believes that it is now time to consolidate and expand its strategy for media programmes in the MENA region by focusing on the digital space. It is looking for a Head of Media Programmes with a strong media background to take charge of supervising the current programmes and leading the design and implementation of a digital platform.

Role Description and Summary

To oversee Womanity Foundation’s portfolio of media programmes. This will include overseeing their strategy, design and implementation whilst managing programmes’ teams.

Media programmes include:

Radio Nisaa – the first female run commercial radio station set up in late 2009 in partnership with Maysoun Odeh Gangat (its current Director). It’s objective is to challenge the stereotypical image of women in the Palestinian media. Programmes showcase contributions to everyday life made by Palestinian women and connect and promote dialogue among women and men.

Be 100 Ragl – Currently in its third Edition, Be 100 Ragl is an animated fiction series that uses an edutainment strategy to open a constructive debate on women’s rights and their role in society. It does so by challenging stereotypes and offering a variety of perspectives – all by means of entertainment. Womanity aims to reinforce the outreach and distribution of the series as widely as possible in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

Nisaa Network – Digital platform for women’s empowerment is a programme currently being designed with the objective to produce relevant content and engage the target audience (youth aged 18-35 men and women alike) in online (and offline) conversations. The goal is to have a positive impact on their perception of the role of women in society and in particular to encourage equal opportunities for women and men. The Digital platform aims to become a key player in the regional media industry and be set up with a blended finance structure involving grant and non-grant financing to ensure financial sustainability over the longer term

Key responsibilities

The objectives of this role will be as follows:

● Strategy

○ Ensure the strategies of Radio Nisaa and Be100Ragl are robust and clearly articulate the programme’s vision, mission, objectives and USP.

○ Work with the programme teams to ensure the implementation of all programmes is in line with their strategies.

○ Manage the design process of The Digital Platform for women’s empowerment. This will include working with external consultants to outline the business, financial and operational model for the media platform.

○ Supervise and lead the teams working on the different media programmes.

○ Coordinate the implementation of activities.

○ Liaise with and coordinate service providers and external consultants working on different aspects of the programmes’ implementation (i.e. production, PR, visual identity etc.).

○ Manage the foundation’s budgets for the different programs.

○ Assess programmes’ risks and take corrective measures.

○ In coordination with the Head of Impact, ensure that monitoring, data collection and evaluations are in line with the programmes’ strategy and Womanity’s KPIs.

● Programme implementation (does not apply for Radio Nisaa)

❖ Production:

○ Supervise the production of content for online and off-line engagement including the messaging and its alignment with the brand identity (this includes productions linked to the Be100Ragl series)

○ Supervise the strengthening and harmonization of the brand identity of Be100 Ragl with the digital platform

○ Ensure strong coordination amongst the various partners for production and distribution, including managing expectations on timelines and deliverables

❖ Partnership Development:

○ Strategically connect and partner with key media influencers in the region to:

■ increase the visibility and promotion of Womanity’s programmes across the region;

■ distribute the series and other productions to commercial platforms and broadcasting channels;

■ identify possible avenues for and support the programmes in achieving eventual self-sustainability.

○ Support Radio Nisaa in its partnership development strategy

Qualifications, skills and experience

Essential:

Deep knowledge of the digital and traditional media industry especially in the MENA region with an extensive network in the sector

A proven track record in managing media programmes

Excellent written and verbal communication skills

Strong interpersonal skills, coupled with ‘outside the box’ thinking and the ability to generate new ideas

Autonomous and proactive, comfortable with assuming leadership on tasks and projects, and willing to work a flexible schedule as required

Team player, outstanding communicator and influencer

Committed to put knowledge and expertise in the digital media industry at the service of women’s empowerment and their fair representation in media.

Applicants must be educated at degree level

Excellent mastery of Arabic (possibly a native speaker) and English, with French an asset.

Located anywhere in Europe, Middle East and North Africa and willing to travel in the regional and internationally for the programmes

Desirable:

Knowledge of women’s issues in the region, edutainment strategies and media for social good and experience of navigating the variety of stakeholders within it.

Personal Attributes

Practical and hands on, as well as the ability to think strategically

Strong interpersonal skills with effective partnership working and relationship-building and the ability to thrive in and contribute to a culture of collaboration and teamwork in a diverse work environment

High level of organization; a strong ability to prioritize tasks to meet multiple deadlines

Self-starter with an ability to lead work streams with minimal supervision

A “can do” attitude and team player with ability to think quickly, proactively and strategically

Comfortable working in an entrepreneurial environment and often, with a remote team.

To Apply

To apply for the post, please send a letter of application stating the skills and approach that you would bring to the role along with your CV/resume (no photos) in English in strict confidence BY EMAIL ONLY to aurelia@womanity.org